SNOW!!!!

Our 1st snow of the winter..... already!!

Dozin' with the Dinos!

Chicago Field Museum - we arrived at 5:45pm.....

Here is story time with Sue the Dinosaur at 11pm!

Grayson made an Egyptian mask.....

Here's our sleeping area that Grayson chose in front of the Polar Bears!

Grayson, Jeff and I spent the night at the Chicago Field Museum! It was so much fun. We got there at 6pm last night and left at 8:30am this morning. There were activities until midnight then lights out at 1am. We were able to sleep anywhere on the 1st floor wherever there was carpet. We brought sleeping bags and air mattresses. Some people brought tents and some people just slept on the floor with their sleeping bags. There was story time next to Sue the Dinosaur at 11pm. Snack time and activity stations before that and an Indian story teller. Grayson thought it was the coolest thing ever. It was his birthday gift from Grandma and Grandpa Quinlan. The museum has overnight stays about 10 times a year and it's for kids between the ages of 6 and 12. There was 700 people there last night. It sounds like a lot but the museum is so huge, it's really not that many people. And the activities were just options, you could just look around the museum if you wanted until 1am! I think everyone was asleep by midnight though since it was all families with kids under 12, no one could stay up that late!! :)

Grayson's 7th birthday!

We had a bowling party for Grayson's 7th birthday party. We had 20 kids there!! We rented 4 lanes and had a side room for gifts and cake. Thank goodness for Amy Johnson because she used her awesome 2nd grade teaching skills to keep all the kids in line and following rules! THANK YOU, AMY! :)

Grayson had a great time and I'm really glad that it's over! It was a Star Wars theme and Jeff made the General Grievous cake and cup cakes with candy light sabers. It was the hit of the party!

Grayson's actual birthday is on November 27th.. which happens to be Thanksgiving this year so we'll be celebrating again with family in a few days!

Shana and Johnny stayed the night with us so I've added pictures from this morning too. He's getting to be such a big boy-- almost 6 months old already!! Such a cutie-pie. :)

How much can one person take??!!!

OK... we're still expecting to receive our China referral in December. HOWEVER, we probably won't be traveling until February to pick her up. This is all guessing, of course, but i'm not going to "expect" anything to happen when it comes to this adoption. Chinese New Year begins Jan 26th through Feb 7th. EVERYTHING closes during this time period. I talked to our adoption agency today and she said they used to get travel arrangements 2-3 weeks after the referral was accepted. However, the last two groups took 4 weeks to get their Travel Dates- and the dates were 2-3 weeks after that... With the Chinese New Year in the middle of that, it probably won't be until after their new year is over. I'm still checking the China Rumor Queen website several times a day because I'm addicted to it now. Right now, all she is saying that we should expect the next batch of referrals between December 1 to December 15th --- That doesn't say much at this point!!!!

clothes!

I broke down this weekend and bought some baby girl clothes! I'm guessing we'll need 6-9 mo clothes... but i kept the receipt just in case!

I can't figure out why the bottom picture won't turn?! It's the right way when I upload it and then it changes direction?? Anyway, aren't they sooooo cute????!!!! :)

Confirmed Disappointment...

On Friday, it was confirmed that we are not receiving our referral this month. The cut off was 1/17/06 - the 18th and 19th were weekend days so they missed us by 1 day. The good news is we know that we will receive our referral in the beginning of December and then travel to China to pick her up in January 2009. That means we were on China's list for exactly 3 yrs!! Not to mention it took us 6 mo before that to get all the docs needed to send to China. :( At least we'll have her picture before Christmas to share with family and friends and we can start shopping for her!!! :) We've started working on her room this weekend. We've got tons left to do but it keeps us busy while we wait. Grayson is telling everyone that he's getting a new baby sister. He's excited too!

Disappointed....

It doesn't look like we're going to receive a referral this month from China. As of today, it looks like the cut off is the business day before our Log In Date. There is still a slim chance of us receiving a referral in the next few days but it doesn't look good right now. We are so disappointed. We really thought this was our month finally. No one has any information about why they took a whole month to only get through 2 LID days but so far, that's what it looks like. As soon as the cut off date is official, I'll post another update.....